I have been training recently with a Holistic Health Practitioner from the Paul Chek Institute. I have made the change to organic food where I can and cut back heavily on my carb intake. I the last 10 days I have already noticed a difference. I am calmer and I do not have any energy dips through the day. My wife who is diabetic (Type 1 Insulin dependant) has found an improvement in the condition of her nails and her sleep (which previously was poor) has greatly improved. I do not think that the change to organic has beend the full reason, but the cutting back on the carbs deffinately has helped. My diet is now based on metabolic typing and Paul Chek (who may be more familiar in the United States) can be seen all over you-tube. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar results. In addition The Chek Institute has totally changed my ideas on training.
Without consciously deciding to cut carbs, I've refined my diet so that it's based around meat, fish, cheese, eggs, fruit, veg, nuts and seeds, and some milk - usually when training. My carb intake now averages about 20% of total calories, the vasy majority of which comes from fruit, veg and milk. I feel noticably better than when I was eating a higher carb diet - cereals, bread, biscuits, flapjacks, etc. I can't honestly tell if it's the lower carbs or the healthier food that's making me feel better, however. Common sense and everything I've read recently leads me to assume that it's likely to be a little bit of both.
Cutting my carbs too , following Precision Nutrition, I get less bloated and feel like I have more energy plus don't get energy spikes then lows. Making sure I get enough fruit and veg though, struggle with milk though oddly.
Like Su Lin and CosmicFish, I've cut back on carbs and do feel healthier. I'm losing weight which I've found really difficult to do in the past and I very rarely get to the really hungry stage I used to when my lunch was based on a sandwich. However, I don't go out of my way to by organic foods, but I try to avoid artificial additives as much as possible.
You are all decribing the correct type of diet for our needs. In tropical countries during the winter months there is a ready supply of carbs, whereas in Britain we have frozen or very cold winters with no vegetation growth. We have historically been eating protein, animal fats, nuts, seeds etc to obtain our required nutrition. I am just hoping that the change will stop my four kids running around like nutjobs at night.
I agree with this to a point. However, there is a health side to the issue due to the potential negative health effects that can be caused by the use of pesticides in conventional farming.
Totally agree. I certainly did not change for ethical reasons. I did the research through my Paul Chek practitioner on what all these chemical are doing to my system. I am still researching the facts for the UK, but in the States farmers are allowed to mix sewage sludge, cement dust, plastic particals etc to animal feeds. Again in the States doctors live an average of 10 years less than their patients, yet patients still go for their supply of drugs. Enjoy your processed evening meal.
Again in the States doctors live an average of 10 years less than their patients, yet patients still go for their supply of drugs. What does that even mean? Are you seriously casting doubt on the efficacy of western science based medicine based off this? If true I imagine that doctors don't live as long because they go through years of stressful training and then spend their working hours hanging around with sick people.
I do not have enough knowledge to cast doubts on western medicine. You asked if the change to organic was made for ethical or lifestyle reasons. What I would say is Western society spends billions on healthcare. We go to the doctors or hospitals where we are presciribed drugs, schools have new diet initiatives every year, governments have new health guru's, but year on year nations are getting fatter and sicker. So surley somewhere something is not working.
This is probably over-simplistic, but I see going to the doctors as "curing" the problem, whereas a healthy lifestyle is "preventing" the problem. In a lot of cases, by the time you've got to the point where you needs drugs and surgery, something pretty serious must have gone wrong. I'm with you and Frodo on this one - I eat organic because it has tighter controls on what can and can't be used on it. Bear in mind though that even with organic food the standards aren't always great. It's just that they're usually a bit better than non-organic.
So surley somewhere something is not working. Yes. People eat far too much high calorie food and aren't active enough. However I seriously doubt we are getting sicker year on year. Look at the last century and I can almost guarantee that longevity has increased considerably since science got its act together. Saying people are getting sicker and sicker is a marketing gimmick to draw people into nutrition and alternative therapy schemes IMHO. What I think has happened is that we've hit a plateau of sorts. Our advances in science are being countered by our increasingly sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles. For me the ideal combination is to draw on both things. Western society spends billions on healthcare. Good! Go to a country that doesn't spend money on healthcare and you'll be in a country with a lower life expectancy than the one you're currently expected to achieve.
